lost git stash changes

Question

So here's what happened: I was on a branch 'A' and did a Git stash on that branch. Then I switched to another branch 'B'. I navigated back to Branch 'A' but did not do a Git stash pop. I switched to the master branch and then back to branch 'A'. I am trying to go a git stash pop now but cant seem to get my changes back.. I need to recover that code but whenever I do a git stash pop, my file changes are not listed. I did not commit any code.

Is there a way to recover the changes that I made? would really appreciate any help in this regards.

try "git stash list" to see what stashes you have available. — JamesOR, Aug 27 '12 at 18:00

score 45 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 16 '14 at 16:38

45

We also faced the same issue. So, here is how we recovered the lost changes:

Go back to branch B.

git checkout B
Use git reflog option to mange reflog information.

git reflog --all

Output:

f332d5c refs/stash@{0}: WIP on B: aa1d0c1 xyz commit message
Now, switch to branch A using git checkout A
Finally, to recover your lost changes.

git stash apply f332d5c

answered Mar 16 '14 at 16:38

Puneet Behl

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Had access to commit, but lost my stash. Recovered my work `git stash apply`. Thanks! – Mitkins Jun 13 '16 at 23:20
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@Mitkins thanks so much, I've also encountered this and `git stash apply` works for me! – LittleLittleQ May 15 '17 at 03:43
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you, frankly, just saved my last 2 weeks in combination with http://effectif.com/git/recovering-lost-git-commits. THANKS! – trdavidson Feb 20 '19 at 20:40
I managed to lose my stash, TimeMachine wasn't enabled on my new Mac. Remote backup was no help. Who knew you could get a lost stash back. Thank you. – Darren Dec 06 '21 at 17:53

score 44 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '12 at 20:22

44

Stashes should be viewable via

git stash list

or

gitk --all

also, git stash does not stash untracked files. If you did this and subsequently did a git checkout --force of another branch to overwrite untracked files with tracked ones in another branch, you have lost that content. The recommended way to stash is with

git stash -u

This will prevent losses of this type.

answered Aug 27 '12 at 20:22

Adam Dymitruk

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after `git stash list` you can apply specific stashes by index number. For example `git stash apply 1` will apply the line that starts with `stash@{1}` – Legato Nov 19 '18 at 09:59
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You saved my project)) – Hayk Mkrtchyan May 05 '20 at 16:06
What id I dont find my changes in the stash list? – Kinjal Rathod Mar 17 '22 at 08:01
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`git stash` from branch `main` followed by `git stash branch newbranch` followed by `git checkout main` caused my stash to vanish. The checkout did not use `--force`. Maybe that is a git bug or limitation? – Craig Hicks May 07 '22 at 18:44

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 09 '15 at 20:53

Something similar happened to me. In short, check to make sure you didn't accidentally push the new files to the other branch.

Here's what happened to me: I stashed my stuff, switched from 'dev' to 'master' to do a hotfix quick. When I pushed my hotfix to master, I didn't notice that I also added my new files that were meant for dev to the master branch--I too assumed stash included those files.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 08 '23 at 21:41

I seemed to have lost my git stash changes but my theory as to why is that the changes were already applied.

I did something like this:

> git pull
conflict detected; stash or commit your changes first
(list of conflicting files)

> git stash
> git pull
success (tons of changes pulled)

> git stash pop
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean
Dropped refs/stash@{0}

> git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

> git stash list
(nothing)

> git stash pop
No stash entries found.

I think my pull already included the same changes that were in the stash, so the stash had no effect. At least I hope that's what happened.

lost git stash changes

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